<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>ORLY by Gammarad</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28707039">ORLY</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/pseuds/Gammarad'>Gammarad</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Internet &amp; Social Media (Anthropomorphic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Memes, Where are they now? Fusion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 09:34:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>581</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28707039</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/pseuds/Gammarad</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>National Audubon Presents ... Where Are They Now?</p><p>The Tragic True Story of the ORLY Owl.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Exchanges After Dark Birthday Bash 2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>ORLY</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/seinmit/gifts">seinmit</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>A "nature photographer" posted his candid nude photos of this owl to Usenet, and the shy avian's life was never the same --</b>
</p><p>
  <b>        Dragged through the muck of 4chan and Something Awful's forums, the worst the early 2000s internet had to offer -- </b>
</p><p>
  <b>                  Before Twitter, before Instagram, an innocent <i>Bubo scandiacus</i> discovered the price of 'net infamy.</b>
</p><p> </p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
  </p>
</div><p> </p><p>Bubo Owl:</p><p>"It had been a good lemming year that spring. The mate and I had raised six fledglings, a personal record, and got them launched. We were on the way to our winter home at Logan Airport -- best food court trash, nice fat local rodents -- </p><p>"I think sometimes, what if I'd ignored the loose feather, flown on to Boston? Never got in range of that dastardly fellow John White? Or what if he'd been in Australia then instead of Canada? Who knows what my life would have been like... </p><p>"It was itchy, the feather. I had to land to preen properly. Mate and the rest of the gang flew on without me -- I wasn't worried, not then, I knew the way. I'd seen humans and their cameras before. Hadn't been a problem. But this guy, he caught me looking undignified --</p><p>"And then the picture went viral."</p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>The year is 2001. Usenet news has been around for twenty years, and a technologically savvy photographer can get eyes on his snaps by posting them to *alt.binaries.pictures.animals* -- but once he does, he can't control what use the nefarious denizens of the Internet put his innocent picture to. </p><p>Anonymous scoundrels paste the Something Awful catchphrase "O RLY" across Mr. Owl's countenance, as captured in awkward wide-eyed mid-preen by the quick-with-a-camera, quick-with-a-newsreader photographer Mr. White. </p><p>"Theft of intellectual property is a crime," Mr. White reminds us in email correspondence with regard to the use of his nature photograph. </p><p>But the 4chan meme-makers hardly have to steal it. Mr. White posts it in plain view of their image editing software, on Usenet.</p><p>In modern times, Usenet is little more than an adjunct to the Pirate Bay, full of illegally copied movies and video games, but in 2001 a good portion of the traffic is still discussion and original work. Mr. White does not claim his picture was stolen and posted to Usenet -- he claims it was stolen from Usenet and put to unauthorized uses.</p><p>But it's Mr. Owl whose image becomes symbolic of ludicrous gullibility. It's he who is the real victim.</p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Bubo Owl:</p><p>"My mate couldn't take the heat. She left me, she could get out. No one recognized her once I wasn't nearby. I had no way to do the same.</p><p>"Not only could I not stay at Logan Airport any longer -- the neighbors said I was a hazard, drawing far too many humans into our hunting ground -- but I couldn't find any decent habitat who'd take me in. The meme had spread everywhere I tried to go for the winter -- all over Canada, Scandinavia, Mongolia, even Siberia. </p><p>"I ended up on the Aleutian islands. The owls there were loopy from the mercury poisoning, couldn't get it together to notice that I might look familiar or that there might be extra humans hanging around trying to take pictures. </p><p>"Needless to say, that made dating tough. Mercury poisoning. Not something you want to bring a new mate back to."</p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Quite a cautionary tale. Thank you for sharing that, Mr. Owl. You have our sympathy. </p><p>Coming up next: the true cost of becoming a Cheezburger Cat. Stay tuned.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>